Health care activists picket at Rouge Valley Hospital to stop cuts

June 23, 2008 Defenders of public health care and front line workers picketed today at the Rouge Valley Hospital System’s Centenary site to draw attention to the severe erosion of hospital services being proposed for the communities of Scarborough, Ajax and Pickering.

The Centenary and Ajax-Pickering hospital sites that serve these communities are facing a level of budget cuts that will severely compromise their ability to meet the health care needs of residents in these communities. Under proposed plans, 220 front line workers and nurses are threatened with layoffs, 36 hospital beds will be cut, bed occupancy levels will increase dramatically, and cleaning staff will be laid off.

OPSEU First Vice-President Treasurer Patty Rout and CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan spoke to more than 100 workers and community members at the event.

Bed cuts include cardiac care, mental health, complex continuing care and rehab, paediatrics, surgery, and more.

Patty Rout said the unions have "put the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) on notice that we expect the community to be involved in any changes in health service delivery."

"It is time to open the doors and see what is taking place in our hospitals. We pay for them. We should have some public accountability," she said.

OPSEU is going to court July 11 to force the LHINs to revisit this decision.

 

OPSEU and CUPE members rally together to stop the cuts at Rouge Valley Centenary June 23.
 

OPSEU First Vice President/Treasurer Patty Rout speaks to about 100 community members and front-line workers at the demonstration at Rouge Valley Centenary.

 

Photos by Rick Janson